This invention relates to a manual implement for scooping flowable material from a pile or container, and pouring the scooped material into another container. The scooping implement can be used with various granular materials or liquid materials, e.g. cracked ice, cereal grains, sugar, flour, water, motor oil, powdered milk or pet food.
During cooking and baking operations a person commonly transfers liquid or granular materials from individual containers to mixing bowl, where the materials are mixed together to form a dough or sauce. Typically measuring spoons or measuring cups are used for such transfer operations. xe2x80x9cAn implement, according to the present invention, facilitates the scooping up of material from narrower or deeper containers into other containers. Conversely in filling small containers with material from big bags, e.g. of rice or sugar, an implement of the present invention can be employed to avoid having to lift the heavy bags to complete the operation.xe2x80x9d
When the person""s hands are afflicted with arthritis or some other infirmity the hand can sometimes shake or quiver, resulting in spillage of material from the spoon or cup.
The present invention relates to a scooping implement that can be used for transferring flowable material from one container to another container, with a reduced danger of spillage out of the scooping implement during the transfer operation.
In preferred practice of the invention the scooping element takes the form of an elongated hollow tube having one closed end and one open end. An entrance opening is formed in the tube side wall proximate to the closed end of the tube. The scooping element could also take the form of a square container.
In use of the scooping element, the hollow tube is pushed downwardly into a contained mass of flowable material, whereby some material flows into the tube through the entrance opening. The quantity of material admitted into the tube is related to the insertional depth of the tube into the contained mass of flowable material, i.e. as the tube is inserted further into the material, more material, is admitted into the tube. The size of the entrance opening varies with the quantity of material to be admitted for a specific purpose. Gradation markings can be provided on the tube outer surface to coincide with varying surface levels of material captured by the tube. For example, such gradation markings can provide measurements of a spoon or cup size or more of material.
The tube is lifted out of the contained mass of flowable material and then inverted so that the open end of the tube is presented to a target container. The inverting operation causes the captured material to flow out of the tube through the tube open end into the target container.
In preferred practice of the invention the hollow tube has a frusto-conical configuration, with the closed end of the tube having a cross-sectional area that is appreciably greater than the cross-sectional area of the tube open end. Typically, the closed end of the tube has about seven times the cross sectional area of the tube open end, so that the tube has a funnel configuration. A relatively large quantity of flowable material can be captured in the large end of the tube and subsequently discharged out of the tube through the small open end of the tube. The discharged material is in the form of a narrow stream that can be accurately directed into a target container, with minimal chance for spillage.
The scooping implement of the present invention can be used with various flowable materials, e.g. bird feed, sugar, flour, sand, cement, water, soup, motor oil or cracked ice. The size of the scooping implement is related to the material being scooped and the intended function of the implement.